Think about how much they cost, bigger vehicle for towing, storage costs, how often you are likely to use it, and then weigh up other kinds of holidays you could have with the cash? There must be something in it though because some folks really love them. At least once they are pitched you are free to use your car to nip to the shops/chippy if you want, guess that's why camper vans have little cars towed behind!

storage is expensive. It turns things into a real faff when you want to go away. If you do it regularly then it will get easier, but if you are only going to use the caravan occasionally then to be frank I wouldn't bother - for the money you'd spend on buying the caravan and paying for storage, you'll be able to rent a nice cottage for a week or two each year

its *WAAAAY* better than a tent though, we've had some bloody great trips away in the caravan, and unlike a cottage it gives you the chance to change plans last minute e.g. when in Oban in 2012 we'd planned to move to Dumfries but last minute had a rethink and went up to Lochalsh and Skye instead. We spent last Christmas in the caravan and had a brilliant time away, no way on earth would i have done that in a tent and we'd have paid through the nose for a cottage or hotel at that time of year

Having an awning really helps with outdoor gear and storage space once you;re set up

*awaits all the clarkson wannabes and comments about traffic jams etc etc etc*

peajay - Member
Think about how much they cost, bigger vehicle for towing, storage costs, how often you are likely to use it, and then weigh up other kinds of holidays you could have with the cash?

I'd second this. If you're going to go away a couple of times a year for a week's holiday, you would probably be better off booking a nice cottage (from both a financial and comfort point of view). If, however, you want to get away as many weekends as possible (and camping just ain't your thang) then I'd say that getting one makes a lot of sense.

My gran had one when I was a kid and we used to love going away in it. Certainly works well if (when) the weather turns foul. Gives you a huge amount of flexibility of where/when you go and unlike a massive tent, you don't have to ar5e around in a gale trying to take it down and stow it away and then dry the thing when you get home..

that thing of having to fetch it from the storage place and load up etc is one of my concerns too.

We used to put anything coming from the house;

Bedding
Clothes
Food

In the car, everything else stayed in the caravan at the storage which was about 15 miles away.

It was a pain having to break a journey home to drop it off and I think if it had been closer we'd probably have used it more, tbh, but putting it across the drive was a non-starter and we live somewhere that storage closer was unavailable or very expensive.

[edit] you and the kids would be able to manouvre it on the flat and you can use the car if there's a slope. Motorised movers are availabel but tend to be expensive.

the towball only has about 60kg on it so lifting on and off there is a doddle if you don't want to use the jockey wheel.

another thing I'm wary of is lifting, shifting, attaching etc - my missus isn't very mobile, so I would probably be doing most of it myself - can 1 person move a caravan?

As for shifting - a lot of them have (or you can have fitted) motorised rollers which move the wheels, so you can manoeuvre it around with a remote control - just get it roughly in the position you want with the car and do that.

We love ours. Keep it at a farm about 15 mins drive from home, bring it home the day before we go off to load up, no probs. I'm 6'2" and have no difficulty with the (main) bed size or ceiling height. A Mongdeo diesel will happily tow on motorways at, ahem, 60........ish, with enough grunt to ovetake trucks. Never towed before? Don't worry, you soon pick it up...........providing you have reasonable spacial awareness! Clarkson's worst nightmare - a caravaner who cycles - ace!

Storage isn't always expensive either. We've got ours in a secure gold storage place with keyed access, security cameras, etc, and it costs £220 a year, which I don't think is too bad.

TBH I think it's bet keeping it in a storage place rather than on the drive anyway form a home security point of view. If any local scrotes clock you got a van they could soon be round when they see it's off the drive.

Regarding the financial side of ownership, we got ours about 3 years ago, 2nd hand. We sent 2 weeks the first summer touring the Highlands, stopping at 4 locations, and the whole holiday including fuel, pitches, etc cost a grand total of approx £500. This wouldn't have even covered 1 week in a self catering single location cottage type holiday we used to do.

Last year 2 weeks at different sites in Wales cam to 200 quid for 2 weeks.

I reckon that over a period of 4 years with all the other breaks we have the van will have paid for itself.

We don't holiday abroad anyway because of the pooches, and contrary to popular opinion not all caravaners hog the roads up at peak periods going to the holiday honeypots. That's the great thing about a caravan, there are so many places you can can go, and if you don't like it you just go somewhere else.

- Far better than a tent. Warmer, quieter (no flapping canvas, wind noise, rain noise or campsite noise), cook standing up in a kitchen, fridge, table to eat at, sink to wash up at, toilet, shower, wardrobe, drawers etc
- Sleep in a real double or even king sized bed with feather pillows, duvet etc.
- Much easier to pack up and unpack
- More comfortable to sit around in - fed up of those damn folding chair all the time
- You can of course also sit outside in the sun looking at the view if you want
- Decent older ones can be had for a few quid
- Can stop on the way somewhere, put down legs and eat your own food
- Motorway driving at 56mph is actually really relaxing

Cons:
- Takes a bit longer to get places, but not that much
- Use a lot more fuel. However, if you have bikes on the roof, the difference is less
- Need to pull over on windy roads to avoid holding people up (yes, I do do this)
- Cost, but this may be worth it - it is imo.

I still have a small tent and gear for when I want to camp, so it's not either/or. As above - caravanning isn't all lace doileys, old people and Caravan Club rallies. There are a fair few of them about, to be fair - they sit on a caravan site all day long watching telly in their vans - but it's not mandatory. A caravan is just mobile accomodation, just like a tent, but better.

We use small sites out in the sticks, the ones with a few vans in a field. The big sites with swimming pools, shops, arcades, bingo etc are not only awful, but they are expensive too

Yes, piece of cake, unless there's a slope. I do the whole lot myself generally. If there is, get one with a motor mover.

My kids are 11 and 10, both me and the missus at 6ft 1" - i have a feeling a caravan may be too cosy!

They aren't small. We used to holiday as a family when I was 15 or so, in a 12 foot van! You'd struggle to find a 2 berth 12ft van now, never mind 4. Most old ones are 16ft, newer 18-19ft. Tons of space in them.

Would recommend a motor mover, so much easier and less stressful than either pushing or reversing with a car.

We originally bought a 6 year old caravan with a view to keeping it 3 years. If we enjoyed it we'd buy a newer one, if not, just sell it. After 3 years we bought a brand new Bailey Olympus 525, which we've had for 4 years.

Our kids love it. The only other expenses are possibly having a bigger car to tow with (currently a Freelander which is great at towing) and storage (about £300 a year stored inside a shed)

Campsites can range from cheap to very expensive, which all depends on facilities and popularity.

Only real downside is it takes longer to get places and some drivers seem to pull out in front of you as they don't want to get stuck behind you, and then drive at 40mph!

We bought a 12 foot two berth, small and light but roomy enough for the two of us. It was almost 20 years old when we bought it from a dealer, but it did come with 3 months guarantee which we used when we found damp. The van spent so long on the workbench having the front end rebuilt that the costs exceeded our purchase price, on the bright side we didn't pay for any of that and the front end is now fine

Originally I towed with a Skoda Octavia 1.6 petrol, I'm now using a Volvo V50 1.8 petrol. Sure, diesel would give us more torque and better MPG but we don't tow enough for us to choose a car based on towing capability. I still get 28 - 30 mpg when towing the 'van and I'm happy enough with that

I have manouevred it alone and it is possible on the flat, it's a right bugger on a slope though. I've now got a motor mover fitted and it's made things a doddle.

We prefer to use caravan club sites - they're expensive but the facilities are excellent.

Re towing, unless it's a double axle you'll probably be fine with a recent ish Mondeo/passat etc. The key thing is the weight of the car vs the caravan, not the power. A Golf/focus will tow a small modern van or a good sized older one

Cars and caravans have both become heavier over the years. There are tools online that will calculate the match for you.

When did you pass your driving test OP? If after Jan '97 you'll have to pass a towing test.

Technically not quite right -

Licences held from 1 January 1997
If you passed your driving test after 1 January 1997 and have an ordinary category B (car) licence, you can:

drive a vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes or 3,500kg MAM towing a trailer of up to 750kg MAM
tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as it is no more than the unladen weight of the towing vehicle (with a combined weight of up to 3,500kg in total)
For anything heavier you need to take a category B+E driving test.

Yes the license thing. You'll be fine unless it's a big car and/or big van. If you have a big 4x4 then anything over a moderate sized van will put you over the limit. It's a bit silly really because a Range Rover and a normal modern van will be over the limit despite being possibly the safest combo, but an old Passat and a huge heavy van would be fine despite being dangerous.

The rule of thumb is the max gross weight of the caravan should not be more than 85% of the kerb weight of the car. However with modern cars and caravans they allow 100%. The quoted towing weight in the manual of your car is (I think) the type-approved legal limit and is often far higher than the practical safe towing limit. I think the cops can pull you and ticket you for having a dodgy load even if you are within the quoted towing limit.

firsat caravan was bought after we tried camping and though it was shit.

It cost us £2k and came with everything we needed and plenty we didnt as the bloke was getting out of caravanning as his kids were teenagers and probably hated him as he was a bit fastidious, tough for them, great for our new caravan!

We took it on numerous holidays, even over to France a couple of times until we flogged it for a much nicer newer caravan which we still have now.

We've had some great times in caravans and you dont need to get far for it to be a holiday / weekend away. we rarely took it more than an hour or so away but from ours the Lakes are just over an hour as is Wales and the Peak.

I'd recommend it to anyone with a young family (4 upwards I think)

It is hard work though, setting the thing up can be hard but, if you plan it well, there will be a barby and a few cold beers once its all done.

cons
1 - car uses lots of fuel when towing, about 1/2 what you normally use

2 - Its hard reversing them. mine has electric motor mover so I just use that. whilst other caravners may sneer, I'm not burning my clutch to pieces and I'm getting the caravan exactly where I want it with a minimum of fuss.

3 - A few hours into the "holiday" you will think, what bit of this is remotely like a holiday!

My advice would be to sit in lots to see which layout works best for you. Our caravan has an "L" shaped seat area at the back that converts easily to a double bed and the standard twin bench seats at the front, kitchen and shower in the middle. Our old caravan had a big shower at the back as we thought we'd use it instead of the site showers but, as we always went on nice sites, the shower just became a storage cupboard. Waste really.

Get an awning. We bought one for about £300 thats full sized but lightweight. We did have an Isabella awning (came with the first caravan) but it was so heavy and took so long to put up, we only used it twice.

Some of the best holiday memories we have are of when we took a caravan to France.

Oh, they hold their money quite well too so if you really didnt get on with it, you wont loose too much money from one season to the next.

Dawson - I was the opposite from you and your wife. nbt wanted one and I was a definite no way.
However we went on our first trip only a few miles from home and had a brilliant time.

All our holidays from then on have been real adventures. Fortnight-long trips to the Highlands skiing and mtbing.

It's home from home.

For me the downside is towing, there are some nobs on the motorway that see a caravan and have to get around you no matter what, this is dangerous when passing slip roads and I can't reverse it.

It doesn't always feel like a holiday as I still have to clean/tidy and cook. Then when you get home it's a bit of hassle getting it unpacked and ready for next trip. However I have seen people on the last day of their holiday vacuuming, dusting and completely cleaning the whole kitchen area on site.

Maybe if you have it in storage, keep some stuff in the van and rather than take the van home to load the rest, take it to the van.

There is so much freedom on site, no worries about meal times, or, getting back in time etc.